Canva owns animation software now

Hi ,

Canva just announced dual acquisition of two startups.

Cavalry for 2D motion animation. Mango AI for improving ad performance using reinforcement learning.

Adding motion editing to Affinity suite. Building complete professional creative OS.

Available now for Canva users.

First today's mentor networking prompt and why Gemini can now generate custom music tracks. Then we'll look at what these acquisitions mean for Canva's creative suite.

🔥 Prompt of the Day 🔥

Personal Board of Advisors Builder: Use ChatGPT or Claude

Assemble mentors who can open doors and provide strategic guidance for your business.

Works for any industry. Adapt the context to your field.

The Prompt:

"Act as an Executive Mentor and Strategic Advisor.

Context: I want to assemble a Personal Board of Advisors to help me scale my business in [INSERT YOUR REGION/MARKET].

My business: [WHAT YOU DO]

My growth challenge: [SPECIFIC OBSTACLE YOU FACE]

Task: Suggest 3 specific Advisor Profiles I should seek out. For each profile, explain:

• What expertise they bring

• Why they're valuable for my growth stage

• Where I'm likely to find them

• What value I can offer them in return

Then draft a soft-ask script to invite one of these people to a brief meeting where I can ask for their perspective on [SPECIFIC CHALLENGE IN YOUR MARKET].

The script should:

• Be short (under 150 words)

• Show I've done research on them

• Make a specific, low-commitment ask

• Explain what's in it for them

• Include suggested meeting format (coffee, video call, etc.)"

Example Context:

"I run a VA mortgage business in Austin, Texas. I want advisors like a retired military officer, a successful veteran real estate broker, or a local politician focused on veteran affairs."

Why This Works:

You're not asking random people for help. You're strategically identifying who has the expertise, connections, and perspective you need.

The soft-ask script makes it easy to actually reach out instead of just thinking about it.

🤖 Tool Tuesday 🤖

Lyria 3: AI Music Generation in Gemini

Google just added music generation to Gemini.

Lyria 3, Google DeepMind's latest generative music model, is rolling out in beta.

Describe an idea or upload a photo. Gemini translates it into 30-second track with lyrics.

How It Works

Text to track: Describe genre, mood, memory. Gemini creates track with lyrics or instrumental audio.

Example: "I'm feeling nostalgic. Create a track for my mother about the great times we had as kids and the memories of her home cooked plantains. Make it a fun afrobeat track with a true African vibe."

Photo/video to track: Upload content. Gemini composes track with lyrics that fit the mood.

Example: "Use these photos to create a track about my dog Duncan on a hike in the woods."

What's New

Three improvements over previous Lyria models:

No need to provide lyrics: Generated automatically based on prompt.

More creative control: Specify style, vocals, tempo.

More realistic tracks: Musically complex, higher quality output.

The Output

30-second tracks with custom cover art generated by Nano Banana.

Easy sharing via download or share link.

Goal isn't musical masterpiece. It's fun, unique way to express yourself.

YouTube Integration

Lyria 3 available on YouTube's Dream Track.

Rolling out to YouTube creators in multiple countries.

Enhances quality of Shorts soundtracks. Create lyrical verses or backing tracks. Better customization for creator content.

Safety Features

All tracks embedded with SynthID (Google's imperceptible watermark for AI-generated content).

Gemini can verify if audio was generated using Google AI. Upload file, ask if it's AI-generated. Gemini checks for SynthID and uses reasoning to respond.

Copyright Approach

Designed for original expression, not mimicking existing artists.

If prompt names specific artist, Gemini takes it as broad creative inspiration. Creates track with similar style or mood, not imitation.

Filters check outputs against existing content.

Users can report content violating rights.

Availability

Available now for users 18+ in English, German, Spanish, French, Hindi, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese.

Rolling out on desktop today. Mobile app over next several days.

Google AI Plus, Pro, Ultra subscribers get higher limits.

Why This Matters

Music generation becomes accessible to anyone with Gemini.

No music production skills needed. No instruments. No recording equipment. Just prompts.

For creators, custom soundtracks for content without licensing fees or copyright concerns.

For businesses, custom audio for marketing, presentations, social media.

For individuals, personalized tracks for events, gifts, memories.

30-second limit keeps it practical. Not replacing music production. Augmenting creative expression.

Did You Know?

The most popular uses of AI among consumers have shifted dramatically — therapy and emotional support, life organization, and finding purpose now top the list, replacing idea generation and search, which dominated just a year earlier.

🗞️ Breaking AI News 🗞️

Canva Acquires Cavalry and Mango AI

Canva announced dual acquisition of UK-based Cavalry (animation) and stealth startup Mango AI (marketing performance).

Both acquisitions bolster Canva's position as complete creative and marketing solution.

Cavalry: Motion Animation

UK-based Cavalry works on 2D motion animation for advertising, marketing, gaming, generative art.

Cavalry's tooling adds to Affinity, Canva's professional creative editing suite acquired in 2024.

Affinity capabilities: Photo editing, vector editing, layout editing.

With Cavalry: Motion editing added.

Canva closing gap to create complete professional suite spanning photo, vector, layout, motion editing.

"Together, these tools form the foundation of a full-stack Creative OS for professional work, while preserving the depth and control professional creatives rely on," Canva said.

Affinity Adoption

Canva revamped Affinity's design last year. Made it free for all users.

Since then: Over 5 million downloads.

Adding motion editing expands what's possible within free professional suite.

Mango AI: Marketing Performance

Stealth startup building reinforcement learning systems to improve video ad performance.

First product helped clients create and launch ads, observe outcomes, improve future campaigns.

Built by Nirmal Govind (former VP of Data Science & Engineering at Netflix) and Vinith Misra (former data scientist at Netflix and Roblox).

Govind becomes Canva's first Chief Algorithms Officer. Misra works on improving Canva's marketing products.

Canva Grow Context

January 2025: Canva acquired marketing intelligence startup Magicbrief.

Later 2025: Launched Canva Grow for asset creation and performance measurement.

Canva co-founder Cliff Obrecht at Web Summit Qatar: Canva Grow doing "incredibly well," especially creating static content and publishing to Meta platforms.

"It is quite an early product, but we'll soon be launching a lot more things around video creation, deploying across multi platform," Obrecht said.

Strategic Direction

With these acquisitions, Canva building complete marketing solution:

Creation: Motion editing via Cavalry, existing Affinity suite Performance: Reinforcement learning via Mango AI Distribution: Multi-platform publishing via Canva Grow

Small user base now. Big brands spending money. Scaling up massively.

The Numbers

Canva closed 2025 at $4 billion annualized revenue.

More than 265 million users.

31 million paid users.

Why This Matters

Canva not just design tool anymore. Becoming complete creative and marketing operating system.

Cavalry acquisition closes motion editing gap. Now covers photo, vector, layout, motion.

Mango AI acquisition adds intelligence layer. Not just create content. Measure performance. Improve campaigns.

For users: Complete workflow from creation to publishing to optimization in one platform.

For competitors: Pressure to match breadth of capabilities or specialize deeper in narrower area.

Canva making free professional tools (Affinity) while monetizing through paid users and enterprise features.

What This Means

If you use Canva, motion editing coming to Affinity suite. Video ads and marketing performance optimization coming to Canva Grow.

If you're choosing creative tools, Canva building comprehensive solution that reduces tool sprawl.

If you're competitor, Canva acquiring capabilities fast and integrating them into existing massive user base.

Over to You...

How would AI-powered ad performance optimization change your marketing results?

Hit reply and tell me what you'd test first.

To smarter campaigns,

Jeff J. Hunter 
Founder, AI Persona Method | TheTip.ai

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